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Eudaimonia! an evening of shared ideas

Here's what happened at our latest Eudaimonia! event to discuss living well in the 21st century.

24 January 2017

As part of our Eudaimonia! movement, we’ve been gathering research (published in our Eudaimonia! report), holding events and inviting feedback on how to we can help people to really live well in the 21st century.

Our latest event, an Ideashare, was held in our Club on Tuesday 17th January. The evening was a discussion on our health-incubator project and how we will be investing in our YMCA Club to create a wellbeing hub for central London.

The evening was a mix of discussions and ideas from our current members about what they can expect from the space and what they hope to get out of it, as well as sharing wellbeing ideas and listening to innovators of other projects across the UK which we can take inspiration from.

Architecture 00, who have been working with us to create our new space, pointed out how clear it was that our members were very unique and cared so much about the Club. The architects have spent the last few months down in the Club researching and running projects - everything from working with artists to create provocations to helping us welcome philosophers such as Alain de Botton to come and speak about living well.

The evening was a discussion on our health-incubator project and how we will be investing in our YMCA Club to create a wellbeing hub for central London.

The task has always been to listen carefully to both our members and the wider community on what is needed in today’s society. Throughout history, YMCA has always reacted to the needs of the community at the time, so the question was how we can create something not just for now, but for the future, for programmes that we can’t even imagine yet. Whilst we focus heavily on the body, in the future we hope to add classes that cater to the mind and spirit too - all rolled into one. Towards the end of the evening we were split into groups to test our listening skills. The intentional listening exercise gave us the chance to listen for both emotional and functional ideas and thoughts from eachother to really engage.

Later in the evening, we had talks on a range of projects that have helped in their local communities - Birmingham Soup, Wikihouse and Run Yoga Run. Birmingham Soup gives local residents a chance to vote on projects happening across the city and vote on what’s best for the community. Wikihouse also brings together communities, giving people the information they need to build their own house together with an aim to create longstanding relationships, as well as the Ikea effect - the theory that you’ll be more proud of something you've built yourself. Finally, Run Yoga Run is a company that helps implement wellness into the culture of a compnay. It provides training and workshops for employees - and we all know how improtant wellbeing in the workplace is.

Throughout history YMCA has always reacted to the needs of the community at the time so the question was how we can create something not just for now, but for the future.

The evening was a great opportunity to hear more about our plans for Eudaimonia! and give your feedback on what we could do with the YMCA Club. If you’d like to talk to us about Eudaimonia please get in touch at partners@ymca.co.uk.